Process of knitting stockings.



J. BLACK. 7,2, BESS 0F KNITTING STOCKINGS.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP 7.

910,896. Patented Jan. 26, 1909.

will

'UNITED HTATEH PATEN T @PTTQE.

JOSIAH BLACK, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO ELIZA VAUGHAN, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF KNITTING STOCKINGS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSIAH BLACK, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Im rovements in the Process of Knitting Stoc rings, whereof the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to the manufacture of hosiery in which all or part of the leg portion is ribbed and it involves the employment of a tube or string-work including both ribbed and plain sections, and a transfer operation from the plain sections of the string-work to the stocking knitter. The employment of string-work of this character is novel and involves a new method of knitting a stockin as hereinafter described.

As a rule ha -hose or childrens long-hose, is provided with a ribbed top which is knit as a separate operation on a different machine from that upon which the body of the stocking is knit. These ribbed tops are knit in continuous succession on what is known as a ribber. This is often called stringwork. Although it includes a certain number of ravel courses, the entire string- Work is ribbed fabric. The labor of transferring such ribbed work from the ribber on which it is knit to the cylinder of the stocking knitter or footer, on which the remainder of the stocking is to be knit, is a considerable element in the cost of the stocking, owing to the fact that the needles of latter cylinder must receive not only loops formed by the cylinder needles of the ribber, but also loops formed by the dial needles, and furthermore some of the needles of the stocking knitter must receive more than one loop; for ribbed work to be sufficiently elastic, must be knit on a greater number of needles than corresponding plain work. Thus it is common to knit rib-tops on a ribber having 176 needles and transfer these tops to a footer having but 136 needles; in which case forty needles must receive two loops.

It is an object of my invention to reduce the amount of labor required of the toppers when placing such a stocking top upon the cylinder of a stocking knitter preparatory to knitting the remainder of the stocking.

Prior to my invention no one had appreciated the advantage of forming upon a ribber as string-work both ribbed portions and intervening portions of plain knitting, and

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 3, 1907.

Patented Jan. 26, 1909.

Serial No. 395,682.,

then transferring said ribbed portions to the cylinder of a stocking knitter by putting the loops of these intervening portions of lain knitting upon the cylinder needles 0 the stocking knitter. In this way the loops of the plain work with which the transfer operation is effected may be made to correspond to the number of needles of the stocking knitter, in which case the transfer operation consists in putting but one loop on each needle a comparatively easy manual operation.

The accompanying drawing represents a piece or section of a continuous tube of string-work as knit according to my invention.

In beginning a tube a strip 1, of about onehalf inch in length of welt courses is made by knitting two and tucking one on the ribber; then the requisite length of ribbed fabric 2, for the top of the stocking is knit. This may be a two and one rib. Then the loops on the dial needles are mechanically transferred to the cylinder needles of the ribber during the knitting of loose courses 3. This transfer operation may be performed in any one of several known ways, and must not be confused with the subsequent manual transfer operation to the cylinder of the stocking knitter. Then a strip 4, of about one-half inch in length of plain knitting is produced. This strip may be knit with a cheap grade of yarn as it is to be cut and raveled as will be hereinafter explained. Next the dial needles, which have been thrown out of operation during the plain knitting, are again thrown into action, and ribbed knitting is again produced, including another welt course 5, knit similar to the welt course 1, described above. Then another ribbed top 6, is knit and an indefinite succession of sections as described above. In utilizing this string-work for the completion of a stocking the tube is out near each loose course in the plain knitted sections 4, as on the lines 7, 7, or 8, 8. The length of tube thus produced is placed by toppers on the cylinder of a footer having preferably as many needles as there are loops in the loose courses, 3, oneloop of aloose course of plain knitting ('11. e.) a course succeeding the transfer of dial loops to cylinder needles) being placed on each needle of the cylinder of the footer, and the plain knitting following the loose course thus transferred being raveled out. The stocking is then completed on the stocking knitter in the usual way. While the number of needles in the machines may vary, I may in stance the application of my invention by employing a ribber having in all 272 needles. When all of the dial loops are on the cylinder needles of this machine, there will be 136 loops and the transfer may be made to a footer having 136 needles.

It will thus be seen that the great advantage of this process resides in the fact that the toppers have a loose course in which there is a loop for each needle, while in previous arrangements for topping from the ribbed to it is necessary to transfer more than one 00 to a single cylinder needle of the stocking rnitter.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:-

1. Knit tubular string-work for topped hose, consisting of tubular sections of ribbed knitting of suitable length for the top of a stocking alternating in indefinite succession with short sections of plain tubular knitting containing wales which correspond to a cylinder wale and a dial wale of the ribbed knitting.

2. Knit tubular string-work for topped hose, consisting of tubular sections of ribbed knitting of suitable length for the top of a stocking alternating in indefinite succession with short sections of plain tubular knitting containing wales which correspond to a cylinder wale and a dial wale of the ribbed knitting, said short sections being provided With a loose course.

3. The process of knitting a stocking which consists in knitting on a ribber a tubular web of ribbed knitting; transferring the loops on the dial needles of the ribber to its cylinder needles; knitting on the cylinder needles of the ribber a s ort tubular section of plain knitting; transferring the tubular portion of the stocking thus knit to 

